Fabulous fertilisers

Shit matters. Or at least fertilisers do.  Looking at the abundant foliage of Bernie's potato plants compared to  my rather scrawny efforts just shows who manured the plot before planting (Bernie) and who, sadly, didn't (guess who). And his potatoes are bigger too. Damn. On the other hand I still managed to harvest 4.545kg.

I have potato fertiliser and tomato feed but so far I had not used them. Given I am now at harvesting stage of potatoes I guess it's perhaps too late for the potatoes but I have a) started to water the tomatoes occasionally (which are flowering) and b) have put some feed on them in hope.

Looking elsewhere on the plot, the allium family is suffering as they are smothered by weeds. Bad me. As penance I indulged in a spot of hand weeding, which is pretty much back breaking.  Bernie suggested to completely soak the ground you want to weed a day a head of the weeding which makes the weeds less likely to snap and stay in the ground.

Rhubarb was as always great this year and keeps on giving though I have stopped harvesting now to avoid stressing the plants. In fact, fruit as a whole (apart from some fairly lackluster strawberries) are the success story - the raspberries are rampant. Too rampant in fact and they are over taking the path. Someone kindly tied them back but they are still blocking way. I used a strimmer line to add to the reinforcements and once they are done providing mounds of fruit (828g at the last harvest) then I will have to dig some canes up and relocate them further away from the path.

Another overly robust plant is are the rosemary plants. If I had a sheep farm there still wouldn't be enough lamb to use up the rosemary branches that I had to lop off to clear the path. In fact I broke a pair of secateurs in the process.

There is a mystery weed that is popping up all over the place which seems to be very deep rooted. That will be fun to dig down to Australia in an effort to dig those out.

The one place I did manure was where the tomatoes are planted. This may well have resulted in the copious amounts of nettles that I need to do battle with (mental note - use gloves because even if the stings are supposed to help arthritis, I don't have arthritis and it hurts like hell.) I also need to constantly have spare bags with me to collect produce.

The mangetout  are also producing well - 445g at last count. The squashes are also starting to flower.

Looking to the future with an eye on the past

Which sounds like a physical impossibility but I've been in training for my half marathon so am in peak condition...

Looking around the half (well, quarter) dug plot I see signs of emerging shoots everywhere despite the recent cold snap.  Pink noses of rhubarb are poking through the earth and there are signs that the Purple Sprouting Broccoli did not fail completely - the plants that managed to survive the winter and being eaten by birds and other beasts are bravely hinting at the purple joy to come.  The Autumn sown broad beans also seem to be boldly announcing the fact that spring is on its way.

Looking back over last year's entries I see that this time last year we were suffering from overly warm weather whereas now we are at the mercy of the Beast from the East (cold weather that is coming from Siberia) and snow is predicted for tonight and temperatures of around 0 degrees are predicted to last until Wednesday.

As I hunker down under the duvet and avoid the prospect of a long run, it seems the perfect time to review my best intentions and learnings from last year so I can try to avoid the pitfalls this year.

Starting with the old faithfuls, potatoes.  Last year my potatoes were planted on St Patrick's day (20th March). This year St Patrick's day is 10 days early so I might wait to plant them until Easter which is also early this year (30th March).  I still need to dig trenches (which were dug on 27/2 last year) and LABEL the varieties.

Overall jobs I need to do when I venture into the cold:
Mulch and manure
Plant garlic and onions (February is the last month to do this)
Clear up accumulated rubbish
Tie in raspberries
Weeding of perennials weeds

I have also reworked my planting plan to rotate the potatoes, onions and brassicas into new areas. This is tough when space is limited and some crops (eg onions and potatoes take up a pretty big amount of space)

As part of Lent I have toyed with giving up booze (fail fairly spectacularly at least once a week).  An alternative resolution is to use up all the frozen vegetables in the chest freezer by the time Easter comes. This means various bowls of green mush squatting in the fridge inducing guilt in me.  The trusty layers terrrine of vegetables bound together by egg in a loaf tin has been very useful in using up the old vegetables. 

The cauliflower was used up in the form of a cauliflower cheese (weightwatchers recipe but pimped up a bit with extra cheese - oops).

March is around the corner and then things will start really speeding up - with seed sowing and preparations.

Tasks to to in early March:
Sow broad beans - a little deeper than last year
Remember I had some good Jerusalem Artichoke recipes in March last year
Also try out a salsa verde with J Artichokes which tasted amazing at a restaurant we went to in north London - the sharp zing contrasted well with the earthy sweetness of the artichokes.

Deep breaths....

Review of the year

Well this year is pretty much acknowledged to have been a dreadful year. Bad weather affected most growers and combined with a heavy work schedule and a slightly slap dash confidence in my abilities, 2012 was my annus vebetablus horribilis.

It wasn't all doom and gloom:

• The fruit did well and raspberries and rhubarb were great
• My (bought) butternut squash plant worked well and yielded 5.5 squash (even if I did then let them go a touch mouldy)
• This was the first year I had success with Alliums and the yield was good as they were given an autumn head start
• Mixed success with broad beans - I wonder if I should leave them in longer as I have a harvest around May but then I read about their season being later in summer in cooking magazines so wonder if they are a result of successional sowing rather than a second flush from autumn sown plants.  My experiment for next year I suspect.

On the whole though, my plot under-performed with usual favourites failing me:

• Potato yields were tiny in comparison to previous years
• Tomatoes hardly even had enough fruit and even they didn't turn red before being feasted on by slugs
• Salad leaves never really got started (slugs again) - the only exception was rocket which is pretty much a weed
• Strawberries are probably in need of a move to refresh themselves
• Jerusalem artichokes, like potatoes, had a small harvest. Considering that they are near perennials I don't think moving them will help (and the place they are in is good as they don't over-shadow other plants) but I do think I need to water them more (both more often and just more water)

I did measure harvests (sort of) but the depressingly small amounts may have meant that I gave up in disgust this year.

Harvest festival

This is cheating slightly as the apples that are the main ingredient in this recipe were not grown in my garden but they were given to me by a colleague and it's a great way of using cooking apples. It's even a little healthy I like to think as it has yoghurt in.
Natalia's Apple tray bake cake
1 cup yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cooking apples, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix yoghurt with the bicarb of soda and then all the rest - the dough will look really sticky. Add the apples and add the cinnamon. should have more apples than dough. Pour into a brownie tin and cook for 160 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The second set of potatoes did OK but I only harvested 3.3kg from the 8 or so seed potatoes. In comparison with last year's haul 2012 has not been a stellar year. I suppose I could have left them in longer but the slugs had already got started on themand the top growth was less than perky looking.

I also harvested 950g of rhubarb which I was going to make apple and rhubarb jam but unfortunately I burnt the jam by leaving it on the heat too long while I was focussing on sterilising the jars. Now I have sterile jars but no jam. Damn.

I have 4 more beetroot which I roasted and will make beetroot houmous with using a Nigella recipe (below but with sesame seeds substituted for cumin which is verboten in our house because it's horrid) though I am also partial to a Beetroot horseradish dip where you combine 250g of beetroot with 2 tbsp of horseradish and 100 ml of creme fraiche or yoghurt and blitz in the processor.
Ingredients

• 400g Chickpeas in tin, drained.
• 2-4 fresh Beetroot, peeled & boiled until soft.
• 2-4 cloves Garlic, crushed or chopped
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 90ml Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon fine sesame seeds
• 1/4 Cup Tahini (optional)

Method

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and process till smooth.
2. If it is too thick, gently drizzle a little water into the mixture until just right 

As a final fling the yellow courgettes have done me proud (ish).  I gathered 2.5kg of yellow courgettes including one that got out of control -1.7kg alone.  I'm not sure yet what to do with these monsters (along with a gifted marrow). Thoughts on a postcard please.  Maybe Nigella's courgette and raisin pasta...

The butternut squash look promising and I planted some Charlotte seed potatoes by the Jerusalem artichokes as an experiment. Even if there is no sign of growth I will leave tehm in for an early start next spring. Broad beans were sown in the potato area and deep rooted weeds dug up (mainly). A productive session.

Time to get serious

Written 18 June in a brief dry period.

Up until now I've had the excuse of unrelenting rain to keep me from my allotment duties. Now the deluges have stopped (for now) I need to whip the plot back into shape.

Having been away over the weekend, the best I could do was to dedicate an hour to weeding on my way home from the airport in Monday. The rain has been a blessing before the water ban was lifted but it watered the weeds as much as the vegetable plants. Once the sun cane out there was no stopping the weeds. I still have a way to go until the plot is as tidy as I would like but the worst culprits are out now.

As the garlic seems to have developed rust (at least it looks like it to me) I harvested them and I will use that space for some bought squash and courgette plants (as I am so far behind). A few fancy beetroots won't go amiss either. Maybe a few beans and the 4 tomato plants still languishing in the kitchen. The garlic have been put on the back step to dry and we are well and truly protected from vampire attack - at least from the back garden. I do hope foxes and/ or cats don't feel the need to mark the bulbs. The garlic are a striking purple - really appealing. Not bad for a crop that more or less looked after themselves over the winter.

The broad beans are romping away and I harvested 600g of beans worth which, according to Sarah Raven you should be able to get from 2kg of pods. Delicious boiled and mixed with fried bacon bits, avocado and a citrussy dressing.

Even though they say you shouldn't harvest from rhubarb in June I got an extra harvest from the strongest most established plants. The strawberries are under attack by snails which are the bane of my life (clearly it's a relatively untroubled life at the moment!).

A jubilee cake what I made...

And the rains keep coming

Well where did June go? What a wash out! We have just experienced the wettest June since records began and July hasn't started off much better with warnings of a month's rain falling in a day (which was scheduled for when I went to the open air Hampton Court Flower show but think it's this Sunday judging by what I can see out of the window).

While the water means I save on watering duties (the hosepipe ban was lifted as it seems to be the successful British equivalent of a rain dance) it also is bad news for the allotment. My main two crops seem to be weeds and snails. Not being French or having the inclination to do odd things to clean the snails enough for eating the snails are an unwelcome addition to the plot - eating my strawberries, baby squash and bean plants. Which weren't growing well anyway to be honest even before they were beheaded.

The tomato seedlings are still tiny and the ones I bought in are developing yellow leaves (I assume the nutrients are being washed away). To tackle the snail invasion my colleague has been experimenting with a number of methods - beer (diluted by rain), nematodes (expensive for large area), salt baths (unpleasant in the morning and involves a regular gathering process) and pellets. The jury is still out if there is anything you can really do against this plague of pests.

The weeds, on the other hand, I could have tackled. And I will. As soon as the weather dries out a little (please, please, please). It's important to clear weeds as they are competition for the few plants that are growing.

I could claim that in the spirit of enquiry I have been letting things follow their course but actually I'm just lazy and haven't visited the allotment enough to sort things out as I don't fancy gardening in a flood. All this inattention has taken its toll on the usual star performers. The potatoes were indeed useless - yellowing leaves usually means they are ready with their pot of gold waiting underground but this year the yield was pathetic. I must feed the ground more and try a different planting method. One variety (British Queen) was making much larger (but fewer) potatoes than the salad tubers (Swift) that were on border of getting scab. Avoid next year?

By this time last year I had harvested 12.5kg of potatoes - quite a contrast to the 6.7kg I have sitting in the kitchen. I can only hope a second sowing will have better yields. The potatoes include red and blue (a misguided jubilee idea)  and, until I looked at last year I was worried I had harvested too early especially as Bernie's are still in ground and looking healthy.   Next year...

The broad beans weren't bad (the uncovered ones seemed to have yielded a few more pods to the untrained eye but it's not really experiment conditions and I suspect location (slightly less overshadowed by the grape vines) had more to do with it. A stir fry with bacon and a garlicky houmous type crush was very tasty.

Apart from the star performers, rhubarb, another real success were the raspberries. One cursory visit on a rare dry evening yielded 1kg of the berries - they were so eager to be picked that they were falling off the plants. I haven't even ventured into the centre. The fruit seem to be on old wood. Does that mean summer or autumn fruiting? I guess this is some sort of summer. I'll cut the stems down after fruiting and see if newer stems crop in autumn. With the slightly bruised fruit (a carrier bag is not ideal transport) I made microwave jam. The recipe is on allotment.org.uk and is really easy and reliable (so far).

And it keeps on coming

Finally the rains seem to be on their way out and the weekend was dry enough to visit the allotment and do something useful. I weeded a bit and harvested an elephant garlic early. Not a bad size but very stinky to wander around the supermarket with.

I planted the borlotti beans, butternut squash, White sprouting broccoli and mystery tomatoes. I also bought a black cherry tomato at brockley Market so that is the only named variety I can identify for sure. As the plot seems to be a nursery for snails I hope they all make it.

The rhubarb seems to be calming down a little but I was still able to harvest 880g of rhubarb. I decided to try a new recipe - rhubarb clafoutis from River Cottage Everyday.

Rhubarb Clafoutis
from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Every Day
serves 6 (but that's generous portions each)
550g rhubarb
a pinch of cinnamon
grated zest of 1/2 orange and the juice of the whole fruit
110g sugar
50g plain flour
a pinch of sea salt
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
Preheat the oven to 200degrees. Cut the rhubarb into 2-inch lengths and put it into a baking pan with the cinnamon, orange juice, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Toss well, and roast for 20 minutes until just starting to caramelize. Let it cool, and drain it in a sieve.

Turn the oven down to 180 degrees. Butter a 25cm round baking dish or springform. Arrange the rhubarb on the bottom of the dish.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the center and add the beaten eggs. Stir the flour into the eggs, and then whisk in the milk a little at a time.
Pour the batter over the rhubarb and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the clafoutis is golden and puffed. Serve warm or cold, with icing sugar to top.

So that's breakfast sorted for Tom all week then.

Rhubarb rhubarb (and chard)



Chard stalks before being blanched

Before the deluges came I harvested a vast harvest of rhubarb and chard. With 2kg of rhubarb and 1.612kg of chard I had to get out all the recipe books to use up the bounty. I made three dishes with each so it's been a week of rhubarb and chard for us.

The recipes were:
- Rhubarb and cinnamon cake for Riverford Farm Everyday and Sunday cook book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Sunday-Riverford-Farm/dp/0007388268/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335172840&sr=8-2#reader_0007388268
It comes out a little 'puddingy' - I like to call it moist (apart from hating that word).
60g unsalted butter
380g sugar
3 large eggs
drops vanilla extract
300g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
250ml creme fraiche (I used used up left over custard and 0% fat Greek yoghurt)
450g rhubarb cut into 1cm pieces

Rhubarb cinnamon cake

Oven at 160 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla. Add flour (sifted if you can be bothered - I couldn't), bicarb and cinnamon, fold through creme fraiche and rhubarb. Cook for 40-50 mins until skewer comes out clean.
- Rhubarb and custard cake where they advise using ready made custard - I used more than the recommended quantity but then I also used a low fat version.

Rhubarb and custard cake

- Pickled rhubarb. This is something I first tasted at Mike and Ollie's supper club in Deptford and it was great with mackerel. I liked it so much I got the recipe and here it is in Mike's own words "Boil together cider vinegar, 1/4 of the vinegars volume in sugar, a few bay leaves and juniper berries. Pour over chopped and cleaned rhubarb and hey presto! It will keep for some time."

Chard gratin

- Chard gratin using stalks. Basically layers of blanched chard stalks (save leaves for the 'risotto' below. Top with a reduced tomato sauce (mine was left over from a pasta). Mix chopped onion and garlic into creamy mix, with cream cheese and 0% Greek yoghurt. Finally top with breadcrumb mixed with Parmesan. Pop into the oven for a bit until browned on top.
- Chard stalks and anchovy mix, served with pasta. Essentially chopped blanched stalks mixed with melted butter, garlic and a few anchovy fillets. From 'Vegetables from an Italian Garden' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetables-Italian-Garden-Season---Season/dp/0714860808/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335173364&sr=1-1

Chard 'risotto' with barley

- I used the left over chopped chard leaves in a pearl barley 'risotto' (I think it's called orsetto in Italian) inspired the latest series of Two Greedy Italians. Here they made it with pork mince but I kept it veggie and substituted chard for spinach. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pearl_barley_with_21752

The rain has limited my planting plans but in fear of running out of space at home I scraped a trench into the plot with a hoe and plopped the pea seedlings into it and left them to the garden gods. I must remember to provide pea sticks for support but they will have to muddle through for the moment. I also created a little line of beetroot seedlings on the garlic onion borders.
Apparently I can't harvest the onions and garlic until early to mid Summer. The internet informs me that this is probably June at the earliest. Perhaps I can care for the tomato and courgette seedlings long enough to delay planting them out till June?

Mistakes I have probably already made

The growing season hasn't even started properly yet and I have already been making mistakes here there and everywhere.

When trying to spread the manure mulch I knocked the growing tip off the rhubarb - hopefully it will recover but at least I still have many other rhubarb plants scattered around the plot thanks to dividing it up last year (and rescued abandoned bits from the compost heap).

I am also worried that the manure I used was probably too fresh so may burn young plants and roots. Technically I should have let it rot down for 6 months but I wanted to mulch before the weeds started coming and wanted to feed the ground ahead of planting (which will have to take place the weekend of Mother's Day as travel and work will stop any earlier activity on the allotment.

The only planting I did was to sow broad bean seeds (aqua dulce) but I wonder if I didn't plant the seeds deep enough. The RHS magazine 'The Garden' suggests 5cm. I don't think my hoe-created trenches were that deep and I certainly didn't dig in any manure. Oops. Along with the other planned sowing indoors maybe I will sow some extra bean seeds in case this lot fail to take root (they are popular with mice apparently).

Finally I harvested tiny sprigs of broccoli in the raised bed in the garden but I'm now wondering if they weren't the beginning of a Purple Sprouting Broccoli harvest I have cut off in its prime. Left a few on just in case.

Delicious ideas to borrow from a pop up restaurant

Now, I know that pop up restaurants were very fashionable and it has become almost as fashionable to knock them but I have come to them late. When I say them, I actually mean just one that has started in the last month in Deptford, Mike and Ollie. They have been serving up wonderful concoctions at Deptford and Brockley markets and have now introduced a supper club element.

Quite apart from being delicious and a great way to meet like-minded locals, it was also a source of inspiration for future home cooking sessions.

The pickled quince was delicious served with pork belly on toast and I intend to recreate it using Nigel Slater's recipe if I can find quinces easily enough at this time of year - they were foraged by Mike in Crystal Palace before Christmas I believe.

Enough for 2 medium-sized storage jars.
750ml cider vinegar
400g golden granulated sugar
3 medium-sized quinces or 4 smaller ones
12 juniper berries
8 black peppercorns
a bay leaf
Pour the vinegar into a stainless-steel pan. Add the golden sugar, juniper berries, black peppercorns and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a merry simmer.
Peel, halve and core the quinces, cutting them into six lengthways. Lower the quince into the simmering vinegar and leave the fruit to cook for 15-25 minutes, until it is soft enough to pierce effortlessly with a skewer.
Lift the soft fruits out with a draining spoon and lower them into clean storage jars. Pour over the liquor, then seal and leave to cool. They will keep for several weeks.

Another revelation was pickled rhubard with mackerel. These were whole forced rhubard stalks and their tartness were delicious, off setting the salty fatty taste of the mackerel.  I shall try this recipe from www.platethrive.com  which seems to offer the best combination of sweet and sour:

Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar (I suggest using raw and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, such as those by Bragg’s or Eden Organic)
• ¾ cup filtered water
• 1 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1 ¼ – 1 ½ pound rhubarb, thin stalks if possible (about 1/2-inch thick)
• 1 ½ inches peeled ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp whole allspice berries
• 1 tsp whole fennel seeds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 dry chili peppers



Directions

1. Place vinegar, water, and maple syrup/honey in a saucepan over medium heat. While mixture heats, cut rhubarb stalks into lengths that fit inside the jar with approximately 1-inch headspace (about 4-inches long if using a pint jar). If your rhubarb stalks are much thicker, slice them in half or quarters so they are about 1/2-inch x 1/2-inch before cutting into 4-inch lengths. Set rhubarb aside.
2. Divide cloves, allspice, and fennel between the jars. Then place rhubarb stalks inside, tucking sliced ginger, chili peppers, and cinnamon sticks between the stalks.
3. Pour boiling vinegar mixture over rhubarb until jars are full, leaving about ½-inch headspace and making sure rhubarb stalks are fully covered. If you have leftover brine, save to use for salad dressings or other pickling projects. Screw on jar tops and let cool on kitchen counter until approximately room temperature. Then place in the refrigerator. For best flavor, let sit for 1-2 weeks before consuming.

makes about 2 pints or 1 quart

Looking for signs of life in mid February

A quick dash to the plot on Saturday was worthwhile if only to remind me what it looked like.

It is a constant source of hope and delight to see plants emerging despite all signs to the contrary.The rhubarb is an ealy star and is gradually emerging. Raspberry canes are developing buds (some even have tiny leaves). Onions etc are mainly just sitting there and need a good hoe.

I cleared the obvious perennial weeds eg dandelion. Apparently you can grind dandelion roots down to a sort of coffee and eat the forced young leaves but I gave it a miss. In the mists of my memory this plant is called pisse en lit in French - which I can only assume refers to diuretic properties. Not appealing. I also cut down a small patch of raspberries as an experiment to work out if they are autumn or summer fruiting. I suspect the majority are summer fruiting (while the ones in my garden are definitely Autumn fruiting).

Summer-fruiting raspberries

• Cut back fruited canes to ground level after harvesting; do not leave old stubs
• Select the strongest young canes, around six to eight per plant, and tie them in 8-10cm (3-4in) apart along the wire supports
• Remove the remaining young stems to ground level

Autumn-fruiting raspberries  - Cut back all the canes to ground level in February. Reduce the number of canes slightly in summer if they are very overcrowded.

Finally I sowed broad beans in a hurry in two patches - fingers crossed as the seeds looked a little withered and are close to their best before date. In another experiment I have (almost) covered one row after watering with a long cloche to see if that speeds up germination. One neighbour has proper little plants on show - maybe they have a greenhouse at home. The garden green eyed monster strikes again.

Recovering from hard knocks

I moved the rhubarb and the Swiss chard and they didn't like it. They wilted, withered and sulked.

(The rhubarb had to be moved despite being very happy in the dead zone behind the water butt to make way for a new path - hope it survives).

You should usually cut back large leaves to give plant chance of surviving. This means they can concentrate their efforts on establishing roots not on other matters like photosynthesising through leaves. Unfortunately I was in a hurry and just dumped them in the ground without even a splash of water.

It's easy to forget that plants need care from us if we want the best from them - most often in forms of time, food and water. But also just pay them attention - watch for signs of stress or recovery.

Here's a (rare) philosophical thought - plants are like people. We also can sulk and shrink as we change situations. As we move out of our comfort zone we have to adapt. In that moment of adjustment we can flounder a little and feel pulled in several directions - maintaining showy magnificent leaves while trying to put down roots and find deeper sources of stability and sustenance. Sometimes it's too much to do at once and you flounder.

At times like this, maybe it's a good idea to take a lesson from plants and concentrate your energies into one goal.

Here endeth the lesson.

A time of contrasts

Yesterday was the 8th March, Pancake Day, and there is blossom on the trees. But there has also been frost overnight. While it looks stunning on the recently emerged wrinkly rhubarb leaves it has softened the new chard leaves which are particularly susceptible as I moved them at the weekend.

It is important when planning, sowing and planting out seedlings not to let optimism carry you away. We had frosts mid May last year and that would easily knock vulnerable tomato seedlings back (or kill them).

Why was I down on the allotment at 8am on a work day (or any day)? I was clearing the kitchen of the last of our potato harvest which had sprouted prolifically. I didn't want to replant them as the varieties were all mixed up but didn't want them to go to waste. I may gave made a mistake by putting them on the compost heap as they may grow again (as my old discarded rhubarb crown has) in the compost. Any other ideas on what to do with them?

Potatoes, shallots and garlic

I planted up garlic in among the rhubarb (including the plants I had to move because they are building a new path). The elephant garlic is also looking good.

I have 2 varieties of shallot I planted - Red Sun and Golden Gourmet (two packs of the latter one of which was from Poundland and in fact had more bulbs than the pack from B&Q). Come end of July/ early August I hope to harvest a bumper crop. I planted them in furrows 10cm deep, 10cm apart and kept rows 20cm apart to allow for hoeing. Golden Gourmet is supposed to be sharp while red sun is supposed to be gentler in flavour.

I also harvested the last of the Jerusalem artichokes and replanted a few of the tubers to grow again this year.

I relocated the Swiss Chard as edging to the plot.

Finally, I planted 4 varieties of potato. Positioning the Maris Piper and Charlotte closest to the rhubarb/ garlic to allow the space freed up by the speedy first earlies Rocket and Pentland Javelin to be planted up with something else. I forked over the soil into the trenches so that it would be easier to create a furrow. The only one where I didn't was the Maris Piper and I'm concerned that the soil is too compacted.

I didn't find time to plant the Autumn Bliss raspberry canes from B&Q nor the asparagus crowns from Aldi.

New growth emerging

The days are getting longer and it lifts the spirit.

While the green we see on the plot are mainly plants that have over wintered such as herbs, brassicas and strawberries there are signs of new life.

The rhubarb is poking its pink nose out of the ground, garlic shoots have pierced the soil and leaves are emerging on the raspberries.

It's a long way to the lushness of summer but it's a very welcome start.

Rhubarb, rhubard (and grapes)

Top tip: keep an eye on your rhubarb and divide if it's starting to look weedy

Rhubarb is a relatively short lived vegetable (though we use it as a fruit, it is classified as a vegetable) and can become woody and weedy.  This is exactly what has happened to the rhubarb that I inherited on my plot.  I tried feeding it with compost this spring but to no avail. so today I took advantage of a sunny day to dig up the crown and divide it into new plants. The outer parts are best for replanting as they are less woody and still vigorous.  When replanting though avoid planting in the same spot as it could bear diseases.  I have replanted my mini plants in the rough patch by the water butt and in the fruit cage.

I have also dug up and relocated the strawberry plants that have sent out runner and were at risk of disappearing under the pile of compost that Bernie has relocated and the pile of plant matter that is fast coming off the plot as I tidy.

One unexpected joy was that the grapes we dismissed as unfit even for wine making turned out to be lovely eaten off the vine there and then, warmed in the late summer sun.  Small and just the right type of tart, they would be lovely in a yogurt but I just gorged myself.